When Four by Tenn, a clutch of one-acts by Tennessee Williams, plays Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage II starting Oct. 19, Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant will be among performers.

Kathleen Chalfant

Michael Kahn directs the collection, a version of which was seen at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, earlier this year (it was called Five by Tenn there). Opening night is set for Nov. 11. Four by Tenn consists of four newly discovered one-act plays by the legendary playwright Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), directed by the artistic director of Washington DC's Shakespeare Theatre. The plays making their New York premieres are And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens and Escape. The other plays have not been announced, nor has Chalfant's assignment.

Chalfant was Tony-nominated for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and scored raves for her portrayal of a steely poetry professor facing cancer in Off Broadway's Wit, for which she won an Obie Award.